TOP THINGS TO DO IN MAUI | TRAVEL DIARY

Hey everyone! I recently went to Maui and after a great deal of procrastination, the Maui travel diary is finally up!

Hope you guys find this post helpful and will make you want to visit Maui one day! If you are looking out for what to eat in Maui, stay tuned..I will be writing a separate post for that sometime soon!

WHERE WE STAYED//

Maui Coast Hotel: This hotel is located in Kihei, which in my opinion is a GREAT location to be in. It is kind of centrally located to where all our excursions were. The hotel is clean and not pricy at all if you are on a budget. It is right across the street from Kamaole Beach which is a great spot for paddle boarding and snorkeling because the water is really calm. They also have bikes for you to use at no charge :) I definitely recommend staying here.

WHAT WE DID//

Beaches

Of course, when you're in Maui, you have to go to the beach! How else are you gonna get that tan??

1. Makena State Park has a really amazing beach. It is the most photographed beach in Hawaii. I believe one of the sides is actually a nude beach...but I didn't go check it out though haha.
2. Kamaole State Park is right outside our hotel, so we went here pretty frequently. I liked this beach a lot especially for paddle boarding!
3. Black Sand Beach is like it sounds, a beach with black sand! It is on the way of the Road to Hana which I'll explain below!
4. `Ka'anapali Beach is one of the coolest beaches around! There are a lot of restaurants and things to do around this beach (unlike Makena). Close by the beach is "Black Rock" which is really popular for people to jump off a lava rock if you're into that! 

Paddle Boarding - We bought this awesome groupon for Auntie Snorkel in Kihei as well. It's a great deal - $69 for 1 day of paddle boarding and snorkels for 1 week for TWO people. Their store is right across the street from Kimaole state beach so it was honestly perfect. You can do this anywhere, but just sharing a good deal we got :) It's a lot of fun especially for first timer's because the water is super calm and the beach isn't overcrowded either.

NorthShore Ziplining - if you want to take a break from water activities, this is a good place to start. They have about 7 ziplines and a "plank" for you to jump off of at the end. It was a lot of fun and definitely nice to do if you aren't into water activities. They also take photos for you during the course so you can purchase the pics afterwards - I got sucked into the tourist in me, and bought the photos hahaha!

Road to Hana - this is another really popular excursion to do in Maui. It is a beautiful road that takes you through the island to see all the beautiful areas of Maui you can't get to other than this road. There are a ton of waterfalls, beaches, etc. on the road, so realistically you need to pick what you want to see beforehand. We bought this CD to help us along the way because there aren't any signs other than mile markers! I will be writing a separate post of all the things we saw on the road to Hana so check back for that!

'Ahihi-Kina'u Natural Area Reserve - This part of the island is at the end of the road driving towards Makena state beach. There is a lava field from the last eruption of Haleakala which is pretty cool to see. There are also a lot of popular snorkeling spots here too because there are a lot of fish and turtles that go to the area since it has a rocky coast. 

Sunrise at Haleakala National Park - This is probably one of the most popular attractions in Maui. You don't want to miss out on this. It is really amazing if you've never seen a sunrise and if you have seen one, you know what I'm talking about. It is on top of Haleakala Volcano which is currently inactive. Since you have to get all the way on top of the volcano, you have to leave your hotel pretty early. We left around 3:45am or so from Kihei and made perfect timing for the sunrise. 

**READ THIS** you have to make RESERVATIONS to see the sunrise which I didn't know when I was in Maui so I had to sit there everyday looking for open tickets that may be released throughout the day. If you don't want to spend your vacation doing that, go on this website and reserve your tickets!

Spa Day at the Grand Wailea Resort - Unfortunately, it rained 2 full days when we were in Maui so we had to find some indoor activities during the trip. But, I HIGHLY recommend the spa at the Grand Wailea. The resort itself is super nice and anyone can go in. They have these mineral water bath's throughout the spa that you can use. My favorite was the part that had 5 different healing water baths that were good for your body - one was particularly good for soothing sun burns, muscle relaxing, helps soothe joint problems, etc. 

Snorkeling Tours - The two popular spots for snorkeling is Molokini Crater and Turtle Town. You can't get to either of these spots without a boat...so you have to book a tour for them. Molokini is really cool, it's literally a crater that is sitting in the middle of the ocean and is home to many birds and fishes around. However, there are only small fishes to see at Molokini but you're really there for the location mainly. Turtle town supposedly has the most turtles, but unfortunately the day we went, the waters were kind of rough and we were unable to see any turtles. It was still really nice to sail out and dip into the water!

We booked our tour with Quicksilver Maui Snorkeling Charter and I definitely do not recommend booking with them. DO NOT BOOK THEM. We had a pretty bad experience on the boat for several reasons. Do not book them.

Hope you enjoyed reading about my journey in Maui! Leave any feedback in my comments!

xo

Michelle